


Supernatural 3.07 review

by yourlibrarian



Series: Supernatural Reviews [10]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Episode Review, Episode: s03e07 Fresh Blood, Gen, Nonfiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-16
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-24 10:48:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30071109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yourlibrarian/pseuds/yourlibrarian
Summary: Originally posted November 16, 2007
Series: Supernatural Reviews [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2202249
Kudos: 1
Collections: March Meta Matters Challenge





	Supernatural 3.07 review

The short version is that the closing scene to this episode has already become one of my favorite SPN scenes ever. The longer version is that there were some great moments in this but I’m not sure I cared that much for the overall story.

The episode broke several patterns. For starters we don’t begin with the victim of the week, nor do we have an exposition scene with Sam and Dean in the car. Instead we get to see a little character development happen with someone else, something I think the show really needs if it’s going to build up its supporting characters. (The episode also had some particularly good guest stars this week.) And of course Sam and Dean break a relationship pattern this week but I'm skipping ahead.

I rather liked the beginning with Gordon and Bela. I think Sterling Brown is a powerful presence on screen and one of the most convincing adversaries the Winchesters have faced. So I think it’s no small feat to avoid appearing overpowered in a scene with him. I think Lauren Cohen managed. Whereas in several of her other scenes with Sam and Dean she’s seemed rather artificial to me, I think here that works in her favor because we know Bela is scared. She knows better than to show it though. I really liked that little moment before she says “I’ve heard of you” when we know what she’s thinking while she says that. What I also thought is that either the writers were deliberately drawing a parallel between her and Dean or else everyone’s trying to play Dean this season, because her own “kamikaze” showdown with Walker makes me think of the later scene we get where Sam points out how very hard Dean is trying to hide his fear. It looks like she faces hers in the same way. The fact that she is willing to taunt Gordon about his belief regarding Sam seems to also indicate -- more clearly than her behavior with Sam and Dean -- how little she thinks of hunters. She is afraid but she has no respect for him or his work at all. I also think that she probably means what she says later to Dean, that she thinks they can handle Gordon, though even if she hadn’t she would have sold them out for the price she got.

As a minor aside, we find out that last episode they were in Massachusetts, which I’m not sure was ever spelled out during the episode.

I‘m kind of curious about the episode title. On the one hand, Gordon could be considered fresh blood since he’s a newly turned vampire. On the other hand, perhaps it relates to Dixon’s dilemma of creating new vampires for a dying species. Then again it may relate to Sam's latest kill.

Another thing I’m on the fence about is the lighting for this episode. One the one hand I don’t know if I’ve ever seen the boys lit better (or Mercedes McNab). On the other there are portions of the episode that were so dark I couldn’t see what was happening on screen and Gordon was, in many cases, nearly invisible in his scenes. I’m rather uncomfortable with the thought that that was done deliberately but there definitely seems to be different coloring in this episode. Given that this is a Kim Manners episode I would think it was entirely deliberate. I liked some of his touches (like Sam stomping the phones leading to the LegCam shot) but this seemed a questionable choice. The thing that bothered me about the coloring/lighting was that I felt it was fetishizing Gordon's blackness. It rather reminded me of the flap years ago about the way Time magazine darkened OJ's skin in his mug shot for their cover story. On the other hand it's possible that this emphasized coloring and lighting was done purposely for an episode where this is how many of the characters are seeing the world (a more subtle version of the transition we see Gordon experiencing).

So Sam and Dean appear to bring Harmony (er, Lucy) back to where they’re staying. Since it seems the same room they’re in later, I would have expected there to be a huge bloodstain on the floor since Dean kills her at the end. They’re again squatting, staying in what seems to be an abandoned motel. I couldn’t figure out why the box springs were up near the window since they were (A) neither blocking the window nor (B) did Dean seem the least bit concerned about locking the door behind himself every time he came in. They look like they’re prepared for a siege for no clear reason. Given that they’ve just been to Atlantic City, either they lost very badly or else they’re not hiding out from a lack of funds but rather trying to stay off someone’s radar. It can’t be Gordon since they didn’t know he was out. Are we supposed to assume there have been more hunters after them or that Henriksen has been getting closer?

I liked the scene with the two interviewing Lucy. Since we know what’s happened to her but it’s revealed that she doesn’t, there was something ominous about the whole thing since we don't expect Sam and Dean to let her go. Little by little though we can see Sam, especially, slipping into compassion for her. I wondered if Sam would let Dean do the dirty work and apparently he does, as Dean returns to decapitate her.

Since the opening shot in that room is from the ceiling down, it's possible to see the floor and there's no plastic. Also when Dean walks back in, though we see the camera stay on Sam, it happens too fast for him to have done so. What I found a fascinating detail is that you can see the outline of the beds on the carpet. So it does seem those beds were originally on the floor there. I wonder if this set was a location rather than a set and the reason the mattresses are against the window are to block the _audience's_ view out. I wondered because one of the walls seems to be painted brick and any set would likely have drywall.

The scene at Spider was a little convenient in that they happen to catch the vampire in the act although Gordon showing up may follow from the interview at the hospital. I found that scene rather interesting, simply in seeing that hunters routinely impersonate law enforcement for their work. It’s a bit novel seeing someone other than Sam and Dean doing it. I was thinking what a big difference that was from the Roadhouse idea last season where, because there’s no real focus on secondary characters, we never really get to see how others work the job, despite having hunters around for set dressing.

I had to wonder though about the chase scene where neither Gordon nor Kubrick seem able to hit Sam and Dean despite not being that far away and it’s not like they’re even moving with supernatural speed. I guess the point was more to make Dean look daring than Gordon look incompetent. It was a nice twist though, to see the vampire double back and take Gordon out.

Afterwards we see a shot of the motel and I’m not sure if it’s supposed to be abandoned after all since the lights seem to be on for half the building (and why would the power be on anyway?) I had been thinking maybe the window was (partially) blocked to keep the lights from being seen from the outside and alerting someone that the place was occupied but apparently not. This still confuses me.

I’m intrigued by whether or not we’re supposed to believe Dean really would kill Bela. My guess is he’s furious because he knows that Gordon is a weapon aimed directly at Sam and perhaps because he wishes he’d taken out Gordon during their last run-in rather than let Sam get him arrested. This seems to be supported by the conversation they later have where Dean appears surprised that Sam isn’t going to fight him about killing Gordon when they have the chance. He clearly expected Sam to object. At any rate, Bela seems to take him seriously enough to go out of her way to help them (free of charge). What seems more telling to me is that she urges them to get out of there, whereas if Dean and Sam wind up dead, she wouldn’t have to worry about Dean’s threats. Which is one reason why I think she was serious when she claimed that the two could handle Gordon.

From the moment I saw Gordon tied up I was pretty sure he would be turned, even though he basically talked himself into that. I thought the scene where he and Dixon talk was interesting mostly in terms of how it sets up Gordon’s future actions. We know from Gordon’s first episode that Lenore and others are perfectly capable of (at least once past the initial feeding frenzy) finding other ways to feed. Gordon could have as well, but what this scene seems to bring out is that Gordon doesn’t want to believe that, perhaps because the consequences of him having killed his sister are unbearable. Although Dixon speaks of family and revenge against him for his losses, Gordon doesn’t want to believe any such feelings exist, or that his own family tragedy could have ended any other way. His hunter’s instincts remain completely intact. His response to the tied-up girls asking for help is to decapitate them (in a horrifying way). His next step is to go to Kubrick for help in killing Sam. And, of course, that mission remains firmly locked in his brain. Apart from the need to feed and his changed sensory state, there’s very little to suggest that Gordon didn’t have options in not killing. But becoming a monster seems to have freed him from any moral obligation he seems to feel to anyone. Kubrick’s death in particular seems unnecessary since there’s no sign Gordon did it from hunger but rather for convenience. He could simply have knocked Kubrick out and left him alive. In close quarters and with his strength he’d have had the upper hand. When he says he’s sorry, I’m less convinced it has anything to do with what he just did, but rather the way he ended up. The way Gordon looks in the window while eyeing the guy changing his tire, seems to me to be the moment Gordon realizes his new monstrous status is something he’s going to live up to.

The confrontation between Dean and Dixon seemed yet another heavy handed attempt (as with the hospital scene in Bedtime Stories) to give us insight into Dean’s feelings by creating a mirror character. I was struck, however, by his words about staring down eternity alone. I think Dean has never wanted to be alone, not just without his family, but without people, period. Perhaps because Sam has a predilection for solitary pastimes like reading and research, he’s always seemed to me the less social one. I hadn’t thought before of how Dean isn’t just separated from his loved ones in hell, but quite possibly everyone period, with no end in sight. And as with Dixon, how that can lead not just to despair but madness. It also makes me think that Gordon has been in his own personal hell for a long time.

Of course the pivotal scene (for me anyway) in this episode is the next one where Dean and Sam talk. Dean’s efforts to pretend he’s not scared seems to me all about protecting Sam. How many times must he have done that when they were young -- pretending not to be scared in order to keep Sam calm? Except, of course, that he wasn’t fooling Sam after a while and he certainly isn’t now. I absolutely love how the two played this. Sam’s “Just cause” about ripped my heart out. And of course, it was perfectly set up because if Dean realizes that what he’s doing isn’t helping but rather hurting Sam, he’s ready to drop the act.

In an aside, other than product placement I can’t figure out what purpose the cell phone scene had. Since Gordon ends up finding Dean’s number and calling him within 2 hours it would seem a pointless effort and hardly the sort of plot hole most people would be calling the writers on (compared, at least, to a variety of others they let slip by). If anything it makes Gordon’s explanation about how he found them to be pretty awkward. He just happened to be in a cell phone store and picked up their scent? And he, what, tortured the number out of an employee? Also, wouldn’t the smartest thing to do have been to head out of town and make a stand somewhere else? I assume the stuff Sam’s burning in their room is to cover their scent which means they’re basically just hiding, but this place doesn’t seem to be a particularly good setting to do it. Also, when Dean’s phone rings, isn’t it smarter for Sam to stay on watch at the window instead of pulling up a chair and sitting down? What if it was a distraction prior to an attack? Similarly, when they find the girl in the factory, why are both of them dropping their weapons to untie her instead of one standing watch? If I can think of these things, guys raised to be hunters ought to be able to as well.

In any case, Gordon’s closing line about how he’s now a monster seems to have an unspoken corollary (I have no choice). On the other hand, Sam is all about the choice. When he agrees with Dean that Gordon must be killed he’s saying so because he believes Gordon has left them no options. The interesting question is how those choices are justified. Gordon makes one, and justifies it by saying he has no options. Sam has one and may justify it by saying he must save Dean. I’m guessing that their face-off was supposed to leave us a little in doubt as to how right Gordon was about he and Sam being the same under the skin. JP never looks all that menacing to me, but I’m thinking that the scene was assembled to give us that implication. Their expressions mirrored one another, and the blood trailing from Sam’s mouth made me think of the opening of the show.

I’m not entirely sure I was seeing it right but it looks like Sam killed Gordon by wrapping razor wire around his neck and that it didn’t cut right through Sam’s hands because of some leather wrapped around the ends (only, if the wire was strong enough to cut though bone you’d think it would cut through leather and thus Sam’s muscles and tendons too). At the same time this seemed to take long enough that I’m wondering what Gordon was doing with his hands? Why not try to choke Sam in return? Or just punch him hard, make him loosen his grip? Did Gordon just give up and let Sam kill him? Was he deliberately trying to make Sam look at himself in his final moments? The way Sam holds out his hands and seems weary afterwards makes me think of him coming back to himself from a murderous rage, but to be honest, given the way JP played it, I’m not entirely sure that’s what I was supposed to be seeing.

One interesting thought about Gordon biting Dean was that I wondered if it would invalidate the deal if Dean was already dead/changed. Does the person become soulless? Would his soul still go to hell? Some part of Dean would go on living and he could probably learn to adapt. Especially coming from Buffy fandom I’m kind of fascinated by these questions since I’m really not clear how it works in SPN.

I’m gathering from Dean’s words to Sam about his recklessness that he’s setting up the final scene, where Dean seems to acknowledge that Sam is becoming more like him and is ready for a kind of independence that neither Dean nor John ever gave him willingly. Interestingly given this episode’s vampire themes, I’m struck by the words Buffy says to Dawn at the very end of S6:

“Things have really sucked lately, but that's all gonna change - and I want to be there when it does. I want to see my friends happy again. I want to see you grow up. The woman you're gonna become... Because she's gonna be beautiful. And she's gonna be powerful. I got it so wrong. I don't want to protect you from the world -- I want to show it to you. There's so much that I want to show you.”

In summary, there were great moments for Sam&Dean as well as Bela and Gordon here. However I was kind of shocked that the Gordon storyline will, apparently, end here when it seemed to me that this could reoccur in at least one or two more episodes -- if not with Gordon then with Kubrick still hot on their trail. Maybe the writers have too many other things in store to carry this further, but as in S2 where a number of new characters were wiped out in the finale, this storyline seems to have hit an abrupt end. Also, again coming from Buffy, it seemed remarkable to me how Gordon’s storyline, which resembles Gunn’s, even gets Gunn’s ending.

However in terms of the general storyline it's almost like there was too much packed in here. I think that Dixon's storyline could have stood on its own with something separate for Gordon, or perhaps even leave the episode with Gordon having been turned but Sam & Dean not even knowing about that fact and getting surprised with it in a future episode when he tracks them down. At the same time it seems to me what is here are themes that have already been repeated in several episodes. This seemed to happen in S2 as well with episode after episode having characters mirror the Dean-killing-Sam dilemma.

What's kind of interesting is that there doesn't seem to be any sort of global idea of morality in SPN. It's very specific to an individual's POV. So for example, Dean berates Bela for shooting Sam because "you don't go around shooting people! What is wrong with you?" and yet in Simon Says when Sam says he kills all sorts of things Dean tells him that those things "were asking for it." The question really is where is the line? And who gets to make the decision? I think that the farther they've moved along the less random it becomes. For example, Gordon thinks Sam is asking for it just because of what he may be. Kubrick, another hunter, thinks he's on a divine mission. While Sam and Dean were less revenge driven that John, that's certainly what got Sam back on the road. It's hard to argue with Bela's POV that hunters are rather screwed up people (which begs answers to Bobby and Ellen's backgrounds).


End file.
